Labour dept to buy vaccines under pvt quota for 25 lakh workers

Taking a cue from Tamil Nadu's efforts to utilise all Covid-19 vaccines allocated to private hospitals by paying for them using corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds, Karnataka chief secretary has asked the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA) to use labour welfare funds to buy such vaccines and inoculate labourers free of cost.

Out of the 14.99 lakh doses allotted to them in the state in July, private hospitals have paid for and bought only around four lakh doses.

Confirming the development to DH, Labour Commissioner Akram Pasha said, "There is very less supply of vaccines in the government quota which will cause a delay in vaccinating all 25 lakh labourers in Karnataka. Despite labourers being a part of the government's priority groups, we are not able to vaccinate them completely. We have been told to buy private quota vaccines and jab the workers."

Pasha pointed out that the existing welfare activities or schemes won't be affected because of this diversion of funds, as the department has a surplus.

"We have a huge budget of Rs 7,000 crore although we spend only Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 2,000 crore every year. We will tie up with private hospitals once we get the government order. We have 19 labour welfare schemes for the education and health of workers. We'll be using the budget outside of these schemes," he added.

Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar did not respond to calls.

Barring some construction labourers working for builders like Prestige Group who have already been vaccinated, the department will target garment workers and many other categories of labourers.

PHANA president Dr H M Prasanna told DH, "The government wants us to reach out to the unvaccinated among the 25 lakh registered labourers in the state as there is a huge part of private quota vaccines that hasn't been bought. Now, since the labour department is ready to pay, such vaccines can be utilised to inoculate the vulnerable."

In all, 12,44,460 doses of Covishield and 2,55,160 doses of Covaxin have been allocated to the state in July under the private quota.

"At the steering committee on vaccination with the chief secretary, we learned that at least 10 districts have CSR funds of Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore available with them. This can be used to purchase vaccines under the private quota and give them free of cost to the public. But they haven't been given a green signal to use these funds like in Tamil Nadu," he added.